While Mericle left most in her dust during John Cooper's fall cross country season, the Dragons are waving bye-bye to the majority of their 2004-05 opponents with an offensive onslaught.

John Cooper entered last week's play averaging 71 points per game.

The Dragons enjoyed their second tournament championship of the season and broke 100 points in one of those games.

"We've been playing very well," said Dragons coach Mike Cooper.

The Dragons humbled Cleveland Heritage Christian 102-31 in Gold Bracket play of the Wilder Classic recently.

"They sent their second team," Cooper said. "I didn't intend to score that many points. We didn't have a lot of subs that game. We only had eight people. Our bottom three were just as good as their first ones."

It didn't take nearly that many points to subdue Lutheran North in the Wilder Classic finals. The Dragons earned a 66-52 victory and with it, a second tournament championship this season.

Danny Batton led the way with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Batton entered last week's play ranked fourth in the area in scoring with a 16.5 average and second in rebounding with 10. Teammate Dusty Back is fifth in the area in scoring with a 15.9 average.

"The entire team played extremely well all weekend," Cooper said. "Our defense is becoming more consistent, which will win us a lot of games this year."

While the Dragons have been putting up the points, its defense is yielding just 52 points per game. Matthew Wilson is averaging 3.1 steals per game.

But it is the scoring barrage that has fans taking a second look at the Dragons this season.

"This year is much different than last," Cooper said. "We didn't score as many points last year but we were pretty good defensively. This year we have really seven guys that can handle the ball and can shoot 3s. So we're pushing the ball a lot more."

Defense has helped key the Dragons' scoring output this year as well.

"Our defensive quickness is much better," Cooper said. "So we're getting a lot of deflections, a lot of turnovers, which leads to layups."

It is a solid balance that has Cooper excited about the program's first season in the Southwest Preparatory Conference.

"We have a talented team," Cooper said. "The thing that really helps us is if one guy isn't really on that game, we have others that will step up.

"If they go into a zone, we've got several guys that can shoot the 3-ball. And then if they go man, we're pretty quick and we can get to the basket."

The question is whether or not the torrid pace can continue into SPC play. The Dragons opened their new conference with a 14-point loss to Kinkaid.